Across Africa, millions of smallholder farmers continue to rely on farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) for their livelihoods, agrobiodiversity and resilience. Yet these systems are increasingly under pressure from the expansion of industrial seed systems, changing seeds markets and evolving regulatory frameworks.
At the same time, many farmers and civil society organizations alike struggle to distinguish between different types of seed systems and technologies, making informed choices more difficult.
The session highlighted the implications of GMOs and hybrid seeds on agroecology and food sovereignty in Africa. Drawing on recent experiences from across the continent, the discussion address seed quality, seed sovereignty, community seed systems, and the role of public policy in ensuring that farmers have genuine choices over the seeds they use.
The session was an open dialogue on how to build and protect seed systems that are transparent, resilient, and accountable to farmers. Participants had the opportunity to share experiences, discuss practical challenges and join collective action to strengthen FMSS across Africa.
Other related side events:
- Femme Gardienne de la semence paysanne
- Discussion consultative du Cadre politique continental pour les Systèmes Semenciers Paysans - L'Alliance pour la Souveraineté Alimentaire (AFSA) a collabore avec la commission de l'Union Africaine jusqu'à la production d'une politique spécifique
- Les systèmes semenciers des paysan(ne)s en situation de crise
- Semences paysannes en Afrique de l'Ouest : résistances, droits et alternatives face aux pressions juridiques internationales
Interview with panelist Omoniyi Françoise Agbodjo
- Omoniyi Françoise Agbodjo is a PhD holder in socio-anthropology specializing in agricultural policies and peasant seed systems in West Africa. Her research and field missions notably focus on the West African Committee for Peasant Seeds (COASP) within the UMR SENS (Knowledge, Environment, Societies) research unit.
- The West African Committee for Peasant Seeds (COASP, or Comité Ouest Africain de Semences Paysannes) is a regional peasant-led network established in 2011. It protects farmer-managed seed systems, promotes agroecology, and defends food sovereignty across West Africa against industrial seed laws and GMO.
- She has field experience with peasant organizations across West Africa (Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Mali).
- She collaborated with CIRAD on strengthening seed systems (SHAWA II project).
She answers the question: "Why are not more researchers attending the Social forum", Which support is needed for the community seeds banks? What is the importance of Intellectual property protection? What are your recommendations for external interventions?
- The researcher explains that current research is often funded by conventional organizations.
- This funding limits researchers' interest in agroecology and the right to farmers' seeds.
- A new generation of researchers is emerging with a desire to promote agriculture in a different way.
- Farmers' seeds are presented as an essential genetic, cultural, and nutritional heritage.
- Seed banks require monitoring to verify the quality of their selection and multiplication methods.
- Documentation must adhere to quality criteria defined by the farmers themselves.
- Work has already been carried out in West Africa to document seeds from the field to community seed stores.
- Intellectual property rights should belong to the communities, which define their own protection rules.
- Protection mechanisms need to be structured by scaling up progressively from the village level to the national and African levels.
- There is a real risk of biopiracy if communities do not document their genetic heritage.
- If communities fail to document their resources, third-party organizations will do so for their own profit.
- Interventions must prioritize seed protection based on the specific needs of the communities.
- Communities wish to devise their own conservation methods, whether in granaries or community seed stores.
- Living seeds should circulate between the land and the food system rather than remaining stored in a freezer.
- Support should focus on the production, multiplication, and protected documentation of seeds by farmers' organizations.
Related:
5–7 October 2026. The AU Seed Summit is due to take place in Eswatini, where the AU farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) Policy Framework and Strategy and Action Plan are likely to be adopted.
What is decided in this process could shape how African governments recognise, regulate, finance, and domesticate farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) for years to come. It is therefore imperative that civil society—and especially small-scale farmers, women seed custodians, pastoralists, agroecology movements, and food sovereignty networks—engage urgently, strongly, collectively, and politically in this moment.
The paper argues that the AU farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) process cannot be read in isolation from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Annex on plant variety protection (PVP), adopted under the AfCFTA IP Protocol architecture.
While the AU FMSS instruments are still open to advocacy and are largely normative and programmatic, the PVP Annex sits within a stronger treaty-based trade and IP framework. This creates a serious legal and political asymmetry: FMSS recognition may remain soft guidance, while breeders’ rights, PVP enforcement, and harmonised IP rules may move through harder legal channels as countries amend or adopt national PVP laws.
The paper argues that the AU farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) process cannot be read in isolation from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Annex on plant variety protection (PVP), adopted under the AfCFTA IP Protocol architecture.
While the AU FMSS instruments are still open to advocacy and are largely normative and programmatic, the PVP Annex sits within a stronger treaty-based trade and IP framework. This creates a serious legal and political asymmetry: FMSS recognition may remain soft guidance, while breeders’ rights, PVP enforcement, and harmonised IP rules may move through harder legal channels as countries amend or adopt national PVP laws.
- Building farmer managed seed system community of practice (COP) For a Resilient EASTERN AFRICA Region.
- Catholic university of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
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